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Quoted from TractorDoc:Heading down the drive this morning.
This is April 21, 2021, and I've already mowed the lawn. . . twice.
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Indiana (and goes the same for Ohio)...April: Shovel the driveway in the morning, mow the lawn in the afternoon.
Quoted from Nevus:Light snow in Louisiana.
We have no infrastructure to deal with ice on bridges, so everything shuts down with snow.
Friday off! [quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
We call that frost up north, LOL.
A trip out to Maricopa, AZ last week to see the new grandchild. Hit some of the usual Phoenix tourist sites we see every year.
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First time we used Tura for a 'rental' car - turned out great. Neat concept.
Quoted from Zartan:I haven’t tried that yet!
Leaf blowing the car after a wash in the summer is a good use too - gets all the water out of the seams and rims pronto.
Quoted from jaytrem:Looks good for my ski trip! I'll try to stop by while I'm there.
Hit up Wizard's World (AKA Fort Wayne Pinball) if you drive thru Fort Wayne, IN. I believe they are +140 pins as of today. A+ facility, all the pins are in top notch shape and run a bunch of great people.
https://www.facebook.com/FWAPinball/
Here's a quick video (starts at the 1:00 min mark): https://indianapublicmedia.org/journeyindiana/episode-417.php
Quoted from RA77:Flooding in Brisbane atm
Queensland Australia
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Time to do some yard drainage mitigation! Is that typical?
Quoted from jaytrem:Here ya go, still gotta do the window trim, but all is well!
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Not to derail the thread, but have you done anything to prepare for this if it happens again? Both to be able to lift the pins up quickly or moving dirt around the yard to prevent it from happening in the first place?
On a side note, I have flood insurance, preferred rate (i.e. shouldn't flood) through FEMA just because way out back there's a mostly empty ditch. But it only takes a 'once in a hundred years' weird weather event that I don't want to risk it. Not enough ins., but it will help. An Escalera would help too, but don't have one of those (yet). Thinking about raising the landscaping up some in some areas as a precaution.
Quoted from ReadyPO:We are getting a Harbor Freight Tools in our small town. I am excited, I think the proximity makes my wife nervous. I have never walked out of one without buying something ...
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We just got one in our smaller community. Fun just to walk around in. Too bad the 20% went away.
Quoted from dirkdiggler:I was outside 15 minutes ago and it was partly cloudy. Now a nice snowy/rain/hail pebbles mix with crazy winds
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Quoted from dirkdiggler:And now a nice clear sunset 30 minutes later. Crazy weather
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That's like Indiana this time of year. Shovel the driveway in the AM, mow the yard in the afternoon.
Quoted from Jaybird815:Haha, yeah this will only take 24 hours to load.
Are you stuck there for 24 hrs. to keep any eye on it while it loads?
Quoted from yzfguy:Our power just went out
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IMG_20220401_183336_233 (resized).jpgQuoted from yzfguy:Nice! Yeah, we've been here 21 years and the worst we had was three days after a hurricane.
I have a decent portable that we run when needed, I just can't bring myself to spend the loot on a whole house generator.
We built maybe 12 years ago and I had them wire a sub-panel so I could connect a portable gas generator for the obvious circuits (well, fridge, some lights, microwave, garage doors, etc.). That came in handy a couple of times. Since we're out in the boonies, we're not the first in line to get our power restored if there's a big problem. Then after a couple of years we finished the basement. Theater room, bar, my office, and what would unknowingly become the pin room. So some dollars invested in the basement.
I didn't travel a lot for work, but it started to pick up a bit since I started helping out a facility out of state. I figured the wife would in no way be able to haul the generator out, hook it up, start it up, and then flip the switch in the sub panel for the generator feed to house if I was gone. So after a call to the local Generac installer after doing some research, I settled on a 16KW Guardian (plus they were offering a 7 yr. warranty). Then the pins started showing up, and the value of the basement probably exceeded the top floor!
Water wise, our basement is well behaved. The sump only runs occasionally during a heavy rain, semi-moderately during a long term drenching, plus I have a 2nd sump w/a battery backup, but the Generac just adds another layer of protection.
Power is reliable in our neck of the woods, but one day it was out for maybe 8 hr. Dead tree limb took down some lines somewhere, but life went on as normal for us. I think the biggest potential problem are ice storms where we live. Plus maybe I have some prepper tendencies!?
But besides that long story...the wifey needs to be happy!! 
Quoted from punkin:Neighbour just came and asked me if i wanted another snake. This guy is guarding his garbage bins.
I reckon it's the same guy i picked up 8 or 12 months ago here. Probs 9' now. It's up against a sheet of drywall for scale.
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I think it's this guy;
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Snakes in Indiana don't quite measure up to that, but they still make great mouse catchers - glad to have them around.
Old picture, maybe 5 years ago. I still see them around the yard occasionally and out by the woods.
Quoted from Bud:Anybody recognize this city? If not, I’ll post another pic that is closer
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No place in North Korea.
pasted_image (resized).pngQuoted from Grayman_EM:OK punkin I'm getting old and all these keys look alike.
Frankly it worries me as I am correcting a lot of my posts lately and I have my glasses on.
I'm the world's best proof reader...but only after I hit the 'Send' button and reread the incoherent e-mail I just sent out to a dozen people. LOL
Quoted from dirkdiggler:Nice sized hawk flying above me today
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We have quite a few red tail hawks around us. Every once in awhile I'll see one on the power lines and realized they're a pretty good sized bird.
I finally spotted the eagle that lives down the road from us yesterday, somewhat unusual in my neck of the woods. Knew where the nest was for a year or two, but hadn't seen him. This year tho, he's been dive bombing the pond, snatching up fish, flying across our yard, and enjoying his meal in the field behind us. Flew right above me last night, but I didn't have the camera. Darn! I'll definitely post up a picture if I'm lucky enough to snap one.
Quoted from Grayman_EM:Just a word of WARNING. A friend of mine a few years ago starting talking about Redtail hawks and how he was in Indianapolis on the southside and watched this Redtail hawk come down and just snatched this cat (size was somewhere between a kitten and a full grown cat) from a alley and just carried it away. I'm sure a puppy would be within it's weight limit too so I would keep an eye out just in case. But frankly it's coyotes that I would really be worried about they are everywhere even in the cities.
Yep, good advice!
Quoted from Sputnik:Oh yeah, I used to have Kawaski triple wobble rocket. In the late 70`s they were wicked.
With the Denco setup (pipes, bored, carbs, porting), once you hit that sweet spot on the RPM...it's like flipping a light switch on the HP and you better have a firm grip on the handle bars. Despite being a '74, it can do a good job of holding it's own. Should be 110hp, but at only ~400 lbs.
Back in the day, I remember racing what I think was a 1100 (not sure what make). He never even got close. I use to race it in the 1/8th mile - lot's of fun.
But the triples were definitely ill-behaved if you ever wanted to turn!
Quoted from DCP:The old warehouse that I use for a garage and storage is only 30 feet from a major freight railway owned by CSX. My black-and-white avatar shows how it looked in the 1950s. It's not much different today.
Here is how it looks from a window on the 3rd floor, where I'm working on motorcycles right now.
The locomotive is a General Electric ES44AC-H, which is a 73-foot-long beast with 4400 horsepower and 6 powered axles.
These large locomotives are necessary to get long, heavy freight trains up the 17 Mile Grade that begins here in Piedmont WV. There will often be 3 to 8 of those giant ES44ACs with another 2-3 of them somewhere in the middle of the train or at the end.
Quite impressive to hear and feel 20 or 30 thousand horsepower thundering by, pulling 8-10 thousand tons of freight or coal through town.
It's easy train-watching territory, especially since the speed limit is only 25 mph here. I enjoy the trains and all the maintenance equipment and hirails (cars and trucks with retractable railroad wheels) that are here every day.
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Ever watch some Hobo Shoestring YouTube videos? Or maybe Jaw Tooth? Both train related.
Quoted from dirkdiggler:Hung up a oriole feeder this morning and already have a couple who found it. Only seen a handful of them over the years and two in one day! The boy has been back a couple times today. Only saw her once.
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Same here in northern Indiana. I see them, not very often. I think the last one I saw was on the finch feeder.
I 3D printed a bird house a number of years ago and last year a wren nested in it. Boy, for a little guy, he sure had a loud voice. Quite a pretty song too. He actually was rather tame around me. If I got close while doing yard work, he'd only fly away a few feet.
One of the prettiest birds that hangs around here are the Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks. A bit of a bright red belly with white around it.
Quoted from hwyhed:Saw this on the way to work this morning..still don’t know what was on fire
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We had a crematorium down the road from where I use to work. No kidding, it would look like that some days (not quite that big tho).
Quoted from Atari_Daze:More iPhone images from my son over in Italy.[quoted image][quoted image]
You just made me realize how mundane my life is. LOL
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Maybe that was the truck that delivered the "No trucks allowed" sign?
Quoted from Grayman_EM:They look great and haven't been there and I live in Indiana.
You should! A bonus is Wizard's World (136+ pins) is just down the road too!
Quoted from punkin:Easy enough, there's a sub on Tron next to it. The colourization on this title is incredible! You wouldn't think it's the same game. Just love the match sequence now!
Mirrored backglass is also nice, found one here in Australia.
There's a lot of great sounding bass hiding on some of the 90's pin, especially JD's riff (is that what its called?). A sub really does make a huge difference.
Ditto on the color display, I had the ColorDMD LCD on mine.
Quoted from punkin:That's what's in there. Great job on the colouring. Really stands out. Is it worth going pinwoofer in this title?
So I don't want to take anything way away from the Pinwoofer gent since he provides an invaluable "plug 'n play" option for the pin community that isn't electrically inclined. But being a (retired) electrical engineer, I tend to 'roll my own' w/the the active sub-woofer mods.
I buy these for my pins: https://www.amazon.com/PAC-SNI-35-Variable-Line-Converter/dp/B001EAWS3W/ref=sr_1_1
It converts a high-level woofer signal to a low-level signal appropriate for an active sub-woofer or mixer input. The car audio guys use it to add amplifiers to their car stereos. It also provides ground isolation and converts a 'balanced' (i.e. Stern Spike) to 'unbalanced' signal (I can elaborate if needed, not so important for an older pin). I then run all these adapter outputs into a audio mixer (then out to 2 subs). PM if you want more details so we don't derail the thread.
Quoted from EJS:My first attempt at capturing lighting on the dash cam.
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House got hit by lightning Monday night. Wasn't sure, thought it was maybe in the yard or woods. But I found the spot later in the day Tues (lucky the house didn't burn down).
All kinds of stuff not working. The 'finding things not working' list is getting longer - time to get insurance involved.
Posted these in the lawn thread, thought I'd share here.
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Surge took out my FlightAware receiver.
Lightning must have followed the metal trim, then arced over to the soffit light trim. Same issue with some flood lights. Blew the lens right off this one.
Turned off some breakers until an electrician comes over. I'm sure my smart house switches are toast.
Quoted from yzfguy:Yikes! I had to google.flight feeder, but I still don't understand why anyone would want to know flight positions? Hobby, job....? Just curious. Glad everything will be ok for you.
I'm a retired RF electrical engineer, so it's just sort of a fun hobby. My designs were mostly military stuff, but I did a fair amount on the aviation side too.
For those that don't know, FlightAware tracks the planes...part of it is used for when you go to the airport and you can look at a monitor and see the flight locations coming in an departing. Part of it is to track cargo flights for the shipping companies, etc. Anyone can track a flight for free via the service (i.e. a family member is flying).
Many track using cheap setups using a Raspberry Pi and a $20 USB receiver, mine was supplied by FlightAware tho for free.
Quoted from Irishbastard:I have a "whole home surge protector" attached to my main panel, wonder if it would have done it's job in your situation. I installed mine after a buddy's street got hit by lightning and his house was the only one not to loose anything, because ha had one. If you drove up his street, all you saw were major appliances on the curb in front of everyone's home. People lost everything electric. He just had the melted remains of the surge protector which did it's job.
I actually have two (I have two breaker boxes), but since it was a house strike (i.e. didn't come in on the power line), those may not have helped. Localized suppressors at the outlets may have helped tho. And weird things got affected. i.e. the receiver HDMI 1 OUT line and the projector HDMI 1 IN - but HMDI 2 OUT and HDMI 2 IN are still OK. And the receiver's amps are OK. PS4 OK. So I assume the HDMI wires acted like an antenna and took out the electronics.
Other things are fine. Fridge, furnace, Rokus, etc. Other TV's are dead.
Lightning has a mind of it's own!
Quoted from Pugster:Glad everyone is safe!
Also, a civilian ADS-B receiver…who knew! I’m guessing that’s for real time traffic data on flight sims?
Yeah, I didn't think it was a direct hit (I inspected the outside), and we didn't smell smoke, so we didn't call the fire department. I thought it initially hit in the woods. Got lucky there that it didn't burn the place down.
Talking to the neighbor the next day, he saw it out of the corner of his eye. That led me to start looking closer in a more specific area.
Quoted from aFineMoose:It was busy on the dock today. Both our dock and the next door neighbour’s. Those Beech-18s take up a lot of space. Never seen four at once before.
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Ever fly in them?
So do they bring in supplies or are they just owners/residents docking them?
Regardless, very neat photos!
Quoted from aFineMoose:I fly the Beaver. Same era, same engine: but only one, not two.
There were a few operators today. The planes are typically used for bringing tourists and their cargo to fishing camps. I do the same, with trips to native reserves sprinkled in too.
The planes pictured were bringing investors and big-wigs to a gold mine in northern Ontario.
Very neat! By chance, have you ever been to the Air Force Museum in Dayton? Not sure if it applies to the Beech-18s tho since everything needs to have a connection to the AF.
My father (passed many years ago) was a pilot in WWII. Spent plenty of times in my youth visiting the local airports with him watching the planes. Fond memories. He was diabetic and he mentioned that kept him from getting his license later in life. Don't know the details, but that was in the early 70's.
Quoted from Pugster:Doing my initial type rating on the B787.
You'll have us all beat on having the best 'pin hauler'.
If you want a chuckle, post in the thread about the cars that can fit a pin...ask if anyone knows if they will fit in a 787.
BTW, I do ADS-B tracking for FlightAware a FlightRADAR24.
Quoted from Atari_Daze:Three Texas drilling rigs are about to be very happy with these mud pump sheaves going out next week.
Each is just shy of 1500lbs.!
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Those look rather stout! What does it take to make one of those?
Quoted from jaytrem:3 costers that were the world's tallest when built...
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Road trip to CP?
I use to go on roller coaster vacations w/the kids. We'd go for almost 2 weeks straight - nothing but amusement parks. I use to buy the season pass to Six Flags then we could visit any Six Flags park for free.
Quoted from jaytrem:Cool, can no doubt hit a lot of parks in 2 weeks.
Yup CP, we went out there for Coaster Con. Exhausting, but a great time! They opened some coasters 2 hours early and closed them 2 hours late. Doesn't allow for enough sleep in between.
So what other parks did you hit? Or is it just one park?
I would get a Six Flags Louisville season pass since was only about $40 as opposed to ~$60-80 at a bigger park, Then hit up Kings Island, CP, Geauga Lake (turned into a Six Flags), then head over towards the east coast and down south (focusing on the Six Flags parks because of the season pass). Covered most of the parks east of Indiana, some to the west. Been to Magic Mountain in CA, and some parks in TX. Never made it to Dollywood for some reason. We'd get there early and pretty much were the last ones out the gate at night.
Despite being a coaster fan, Universal/IOA Orlando is still my favorite. Good to see them expanding again.
Quoted from Vic_Camp:Hillsboro Lighthouse in south Florida built 1906 still operating at the present time. Walked up to the top today and took a picture of the Hillsboro Inlet.
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Take any inside pictures of the light?
Quoted from Vic_Camp:The very top of the inside of the lighthouse where the light was located was closed off to the general public.
https://www.floridarambler.com/historic-florida-getaways/hillsboro-lighthouse/
Thanks for the link, that was interesting. So it sounds like you had to take a boat ride over to the lighthouse since it's surrounded by private property?
Neighbor saw this guy (or gal) a couple of times in our small country addition. I *think* it's just a harmless watersnake (there's a pond nearby) from what I saw online. But he sure looks a lot more intimidating than the common garter snakes I see in the yard occasionally.
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Quoted from punkin:Looks well fed. He's coping pretty well. Must be like maybe frogs and lizards, birds and stuff he likes i guess.
I was trimming the dead cattails in the area he probably hangs out at...no shortage of frogs. Must be like a buffet for snakes.
pasted_image (resized).pngQuoted from ReadyPO:Yeah, looks like a northern water snake. The older they get, the darker they get and can become almost be black. Not poisonous but they can bite. We are on a large lake and have lots of these guys roaming around. As the saying goes, they are more scared of you than you are of them.
I assume you being in IL and I'm in IN, there's a lot of commonality regarding the snakes. Indiana only has 4 poisonous types around, more so in the south and central areas than the northern tip where I'm at.
Personally, I like having them around (the garter snakes)...probably the best free mouse trap you can get.
Quoted from EJS:Someone’s all grown up or at least on their way. Average size in MN is smaller…in my findings.
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World's best mouse trap!
Quoted from Atari_Daze:Looks like this skink is having grasshopper for dinner.
I've never seen them with food before, luckily it posed for a close up.[quoted image][quoted image]
Looks like a small snake with legs.
Quoted from Atari_Daze:All ceramic bearing, guesses as what it sells for?[quoted image]
10 for $1 on Aliexpress. Free shipping.
The wifey got me a drone for my birthday, amazing how much 'smarts' are in an incredibly small package. Old picture, maybe a month or two ago. I think this is around 350', FAA limit is 400' where I live. I usually stay around 150', but decided to go higher up for a more panoramic view.
pasted_image (resized).pngQuoted from Atari_Daze:Added room for the B 36 eh?
HOA was complaining about the B-36 setting in the driveway, then I decided to move the XB-70 indoors too, got tired of moving it every time I took the B-36 out to get groceries.
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Quoted from jhanley:Where is that museum?
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
Dayton, OH.
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/
Been there a bunch over the ages, I could easily spend days there. The place is absolutely enormous, over 1.1 mil sq. ft. Free parking and admittance.
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Quoted from jaytrem:The crazy flood was about 2 years ago. We got a similar about of rain, but it was over 2 days rather than 2 hours. Luckily it still had quite a ways to go before it hit the house this time. My emergency pinball float system can be quickly assembled, would prefer to never try it out though...
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Have you looked into collectable insurance? I have a small ditch outback that despite a heavy downpours, it's very well behaved. Maybe 1/3 full after ~6" of rain. Not in a flood area, but the county's been fooling around with drainage in the area. Just drains from land nearby. But with the price of pins nowadays, I bought insurance just to calm my nerves. The insurance was reasonably priced.
I've looked at FEMA flood maps, LIDAR scans of the area (cool to look at), etc. - all looks good. I still worried. I'll probably bump up a small retaining another wall 4" this summer since it needs rebuilt anyways.
Quoted from Sputnik:...I don't see any indicated airspeed.
Would that be because it's a helicopter, hovering?
Woo Woo! All aboard!
Took a short ride on on the Nickel Plate 765 today. I use to see it setting in a local park in the 60s'/70's. It was eventually moved to be cleaned up and put in a museum. Thankfully, the team decided to restore to operating condition.
https://www.indianarailexperience.org/
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Quoted from pinwiztom:Is that a prairie dog or marmot or ground hog or gopher or ???
Ground hog. The videos were hilarious. He (or she) was on some sort of mission on the patio, back and forth over the course of 1.5 hrs. Didn't do anything destructive other than chomping on the wife's flowers. I moved another camera there to help see what he's up to if he comes back.
I have some cheapie Wyze cameras that work great as trail cameras. We feed a couple of feral cats, so one camera is on the patio to see what's going on.
We had a raccoon earlier in the week going after the hanging bird feeder out back. He looked like a flunky trapeze artist.
Quoted from EJS:Wings are growing in. I don’t think I’ve posted since the above but one of the babies didn’t make it so we’re down to one. Fingers crossed.
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A year or two ago, we had some baby robins out front (I think I posted here), but someone mentioned the sparrows will go after the nest. I'm not sure if any of them made it or not.
Are those wrens in your pictures? Might be a tad too big.
Quoted from EJS:They look similar but I’m not sure they are. Not robins as I have those around too and they don’t match.
Hopefully they are safe here tucked under my deck and the house.
We have wrens out back by the woods. I 3D printed a bird house and one took up residence years ago, so I got a proper bird house. Didn't take long for one to find it.
Wrens: "The little bird with a big voice" - I really enjoy listening to them, pretty easy to spot their song from a distance. From my experience, they are aren't too skittish w/respect to people. I can get pretty close to them in the tree before they fly up a branch or two.
Quoted from Jaybird815:Still cleaning up from the Hurricane almost a year later[quoted image][quoted image]
I'm not sure if 'cleaning up' is the right word - looks like it needs to be torn down. Yikes. Has to be frustrating if it's turned into an insurance issue.
Quoted from jaytrem:Seems to be holding...
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I'd have to get a prescription for Extra Strength Prozac if I saw that out my window.
Have you ever thought about of building up a little berm in the yard to give you some breathing room (maybe the yard isn't conducive for that)?
Quoted from jaytrem:Now we're talkin'!!!
Our plan is to build up and basically abandon the lower lever (where the pinball machines are). We're currently on the list of houses to be elevated, but FEMA often does some crazy stuff. So we may or may not go that route. A berm wouldn't really do much. We'd have to buy some type of removable coffer dam and surround the whole house. I do have sandbags and a pumping system, but at some point you need to let the water in, or things can start collapsing. This was across the river from us...
Luckily everyone survived.
Wow, that was crazy. Don't mean to pry, but do you have FEMA flood insurance?
Quoted from jaytrem:In theory I'm way past sandbag time. But it's rising so slowly and the levels have dropped upstream. I'll hold off for a bit.
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How much rain do you think the surrounding area got? Looking at the precipitation maps, only 3-4"?
pasted_image (resized).pngQuoted from jaytrem:Yeah, we can usually handle more than this. Ground isn't frozen at all, but I guess maybe the trees aren't absorbing anything this time of year. Looks like they got over 4.5 upstream.
River is still rising, but the sand bags are doing their thing. Figure it should be dropping soon. Everywhere else is.
I've always been paranoid about our ditch way out back. No clue why, it's barely even a 1/3 full even when we get 6 inches in short order. And maybe a mile downstream, the slope has fallen a good 15-20 ft (if I remember correctly). I even looked at the LIDAR maps of the area. Indiana happens to be one of the states with great LIDAR coverage, rather neat looking at the point map.
I even bought FEMA flood insurance, preferred rates since I'm not even close to being in a flood plan. But FEMA rates have gone up a ton the past couple of years, I cringe a bit when we pay the bill.
Quoted from jaytrem:All good now! No damage. Thank you all for your concern...
Good to hear! Now go get another pump tomorrow to replace the one giving you problems ASAP!
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